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OREGON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES 385 'Jwm at this point which was near the center of the valley. One of these roads was the north and south road from the Willamette Valley and the other was the road leading from Jacksonville, which was then the center of settle- ment, northeast of Table Rock, Sams Valley and other communities. The community was named by Isaac Con- stant who was a pioneer of 1852 and who lived near the crossroads. Magruder Brothers established a store at this point about 1870 and the post office was given the name of Central Point. It is on the main line of the Southern Pacific Company and on the Pacific Highway and has an elevation of 1272 feet. CHAMPOEG, Marion County. The name Champoeg (Champooick, in early official records of the provisional government) is variously explained. According to F. X. Matthieu, the name was derived from the French words, Campment du Sable, "camp of sand" (Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, volume I, page 88). According to other tesimony, the origin is from French champ ("field"), and an Indian word, probably pooich ("root") ; or the word may be purely Indian, designating a root or weed. According to H. S. Lyman, the name is not of French, but of Indian origin; Cham (hard ch), as in Che- halem, Chenamus, Chemeketa, Calapooya (Oregon His- torical Society Quarterly; volume I, page 176). Frederick V. Holman says Champoeg is an Indian word, Champoo, a weed (ibid., volume XI, pages 22-23). Wilkes' map of 1841 shows Champooing. Champoeg was the site of the first warehouse of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Willamette River, south of Oregon City, and the shipping place of wheat of Willamette Valley. The accessibility of Champoeg by land and water caused it to be chosen as the meeting place for establishing the provisional govern- ment. -•mm mm tUfi III • '>'•

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